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DEFINITION  AND  HISTORY  OF 
PSYCHOANALYSIS 

BY 

DR.    OSKAR    PFISTER 

Pastor  and  Seminary  Teacher  in  Zurich 

AND 

FREUD'S  THEORIES  OF  THE 
NEUROSES 

BY 

DR.  EDUARD  HITSCHMANN 


MOFFAT,   YARD  &  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS— NEW  YORK 


CoPYRieHT,   1916,    BY 

MOFFAT,   YARD   &  COMPANY 


Reprinted  from  "The  Peychoanalytic  Method,"  by  Dr.  Oskar  Pfleter 
Reprinted  from  "Theories  of  the  Neuroses,"  by  Dr.  Ednard  Hitschmann 


o 


CM 


'  CHAPTER  I 

DEFINITION  AND  HISTORY  OF  PSYCHOANALYSIS 

Psychoanalysis,  as  its  name  denotes,  concerns  itself  with 
the  separation  of  mental  processes  into  their  constituent  ele- 
ments. We  might,  indeed,  conjure  up  all  kinds  of  harm  if  we 
did  not  at  once  warn  against  considering  this  provisional  state- 
ment as  an  exact  definition. 

There  has  been  analysis  of  psychic  phenomena  since  prehis- 
toric times.  The  psychologist- who  separates  the  contents  of 
consciousness  into  its  constituent  parts  and  traces  them  back 
to  their  causes,  the  historian  of  art  who  seeks  the  origin  of  an 
important  creation,  the  biographer  who  is  engrossed  in  the  de-- 
velopment  of  his  hero,  the  physician  who  attempts  to  elucidate 
the  compelling  motives  of  a  melancholia,  the  educator  who  en- 
deavors to  understand  the  mental  condition  of  his  pupil,  in 
short,  everyone  who  is  intent  upon  penetrating  the  mental  life 
of  others  would  be,  according  to  the  statement  heading  our 
train  of  thought,  a  psychoanalyst.  In  reality,  not  a  few  repre- 
sentatives of  ancient  traditions,  in  view  of  the  results  of  the 
successfully  advancing  movement  which  bears  the  distinctive 
name,  pride  themselves  that  they  have  already  done  psycho- 
analysis for  decades. 

They  would  be  quite  right  if  the  meaning  of  the  word  was 
derived  by  merely  splitting  it  into  its  parts.  The  name  has, 
however,  gained  its  content  by  an  historical  process,  to  over- 
look which  would  create  a  fatal  confusion.  In  order  to  escape 
the  annoying  cobwebs  and  arrive  at  the  correct  definition,  we 
have  to  present  in  detail  how  the  originator  of  the  name  and 
the  very  special  procedure  connoted  by  the  same,  reached  his 
theory  and  technique.  We  shall  see  that  the  criterion  of 
psychoanalysis  lies  in  a  special  kind  of  inquiry  into  the  uncon- 

1 


g  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

scious  mental  processes  which  powerfully  influence  the  con- 
scious life. 

In  the  year  1893,  Sigmund  Freud  *  published,  in  collabora- 
tion with  his  colleague,  Josef  Breuer,  an  epoch-making  article 
entitled  "Concerning  the  Psychic  IMechanism  of  Hysterical 
Phenomena'*  ("tjber  den  psj^hischen  ]\Iechanismus  hys- 
terischer  Phanomene").  In  order  to  understand  the  funda- 
mental ideas  of  this  short  but  important  work,  it  is  advisable 
to  investigate  its  connection  with  the  father  of  the  hysteria 
investigation,  J.  M.  Charcot  of  Paris  (1893).  The  celebrated 
director  of  the  Salpetriere  was  the  first  person  to  free  hys- 
terical individuals  from  the  stigma  of  ridiculousness,  earnestly 
to  study  and  systematically  to  arrange  their  sj^mptoms,  in 
doing  which,  he  was  also  able  to  demonstrate  hysteria  in  the 
male  sex.  Especially  important  was  his  discovery,  made  by 
researchers  on  hj'pnotized  patients,  that  the  hysterical  paraly- 
ses which  appear  after  severe  emotional  shock,  the  socalled 
traumatic  t  paralyses,  arise  from  ideas  which  control  the  per- 
sons in  moments  of  special  dispositions.  The  motor  disturb- 
ances may  be  produced  %  in  hypnosis  and  even  in  suggestion. 

These  results  at  first  exercised  no  effect  on  therapeutic 
methods.  Charcot  remained  true  to  phj^sical  and  chemical 
procedures.  He  advised  pressing  on  the  ovarian  region  at 
short  intervals,  under  certain  circumstances  for  hours,  in  order 
to  lessen  the  severity  of  the  convulsive  attacks  or  indeed  to  dis- 
sipate II  them.  To  overcome  an  hysterical  epileptical  con- 
dition, he  ordered  ether  or  amyl  nitrite.li 

One  of  his  pupils,  Pierre  Janet,  cured  a  case  of  complicated 
traumatic  hysteria  by  taking  the  patient  in  the  hypnotic  state 
back  to  the  time  when  the  shock  was  received  and  suggesting 

*  Sigmund  Freud,  born  ^lay  6,  185(5,  in  Freiberg,  Moravia,  Austria, 
is  to-day  Professor  of  Neurology  in  tlie  University  of  Vienna. 

t  From   '"trauma,"   wound,  thus  about:    caused   by   injury. 

t  Sigmund  Freud,  Sammlung  kleiner  Schriften  zur  Neurosenlehre 
I,   p.    12. 

!|  J.  M.  Charcot,  Legons  sur  les  maladies  du  systeme  nerveux,  5tli 
ed.,  Paris,  Vol.  I    (1884),  pp.  339,  400. 

HP.  401  f. 


CHARCOT  AND  JANET  S 

that  the  shock  was  harmless.  We  will  quote  the  account  of 
this  instructive  process  for  the  reader 's  perusal : 

]\Iarie,  a  girl  of  nineteen  years,  suffered  upon  her  admission 
to  the  institution  from  periodic  convulsions  and  deliria.  Be- 
fore the  beginning  of  her  menstrual  periods,  her  character 
changed,  she  became  gloomy  and  violent  and  had  pains  in  all 
her  limbs  together  with  nervous  disturbances.  Barely  twenty 
hours  after  the  onset  of  the  flow,  the  menstruation  would  sud- 
denly cease,  a  severe  chill  would  shake  her  whole  body  and  a 
severe  pain  slowly  ascend  from  body  to  throat  and  the  great 
hysterical  crises  begin.  The  violent  convulsions  were  soon 
succeeded  by  deliria.  Now,  the  patient  uttered  cries  of  terror, 
meanwhile  talking  constantly  of  blood  and  fire  and  fleeing  to 
escape  the  flames,  now  she  played  like  a  child,  spoke  with  her 
mother  and  climbed  on  the  stove  or  furniture.  Delirium  and 
convulsions  alternated  with  short  intermissions  for  forty-eight 
hours.  After  repeated  vomiting  of  blood,  the  normal  con- 
dition gradually  returned.  Between  these  major  monthly  at- 
tacks, Marie  had  minor  muscular  contractures,  various  chang- 
ing anesthesias  (entire  loss  of  sensation)  and  in  particular, 
complete  and  constant  blindness  of  the  left  eye. 

For  seven  months  the  disease  resisted  all  medical  pro- 
cedures. Especially  did  suggestive  measures  regarding  the 
menstruation  have  only  bad  effects  and  increased  the  deliria. 

The  hj^pnotic  investigation  yielded  the  following:  At  the 
age  of  thirteen,  about  twenty  hours  after  the  onset  of  the  first 
menstruation,  Marie,  impelled  by  false  shame,  secretly  took  a 
cold  bath,  by  which  the  flow  was  suddenly  interrupted.  At 
the  same  time  there  appeared  severe  chills  and  delirium  lasting 
for  days.  When,  after  five  years,  the  menstrual  periods  re- 
turned, they  brought  the  above  described  condition  with  them. 
Thus,  the  patient  repeated  the  bath  scene  monthly  without 
knowing  it. 

The  cure  did  not  succeed  by  the  mere  hypnotic  removal  of 
the  fixed  idea.  Only  when  the  patient  in  hypnosis  had  been 
taken  back  to  the  age  of  thirteen,  could  the  conviction  be 
awakened  that  the  menstrual  period  would  normally  come  to 


4  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

an  end  in  a  course  of  three  days.  Immediately,  no  further 
periodic  disturbances  were  to  be  seen  in  the  patient. 

The  cries  of  terror  were  explained  by  the  circumstance  that 
]\Iarie,  when  sixteen  years  old,  saw  an  old  woman  killed  by  a 
fall  from  the  stairs.  AVith  considerable  trouble,  the  girl  was 
shown  in  artificial  sleep  that  the  old  woman  only  stumbled  and 
had  not  died.     The  cries  ceased  from  that  moment. 

]\Iost  difficult  was  the  explanation  of  the  hysterical  blind- 
ness. Finally,  it  was  discovered  that  ]\Iarie,  when  six  years 
old,  had  been  compelled  one  day  in  spite  of  her  outcries,  to 
sleep  with  a  child  of  similar  age  which  had  scrofula  on  the 
whole  left  side  of  its  face.  Soon  after,  ]\Iarie  developed  the 
same  trouble  on  the  same  place.  When  the  scrofula  disap- 
peared, it  left  behind  anesthesia  of  the  left  half  of  the  face  and 
blindness  of  the  left  eye.  Again  the  girl  was  taken  back  to  the 
time  of  the  first  shock.  The  physician  pictured  the  pretty 
comrade  entirely  free  from  scrofula.  At  the  second  repetition 
of  the  scene,  the  now  convinced  patient  caressed  the  imaginary 
child  and  upon  awakening  could  see  perfectly  normally.* 

The  method  applied  by  Pierre  Janet,  although  recognized  t 
by  Delboeuf  and  Binet  as  an  effective  means  of  treatment, 
was  not  considered  a  regular  method  nor  established  theoret- 
ically. 

An  accidental  discovery,  the  enormous  importance  of  which 
its  fortunate  discoverer  himself  did  not  sufficiently  appreciate, 
opened  up  new  paths.  In  the  years  1880-82  the  Vieitna 
physician.  Dr.  Josef  Breuer,  was  engaged  with  a  famous 
patientj  The  girl,  aged  twenty-one,  suffered  from  severe 
hysteria,  the  most  important  symptom  of  which  consisted  of 
paralysis  and  anesthesia  of  the  limbs  on  the  right  (less  often 
left)  side  of  the  body,  of  squinting,  cough  and  other  physical 
troubles.  The  walls  seemed  to  be  falling  on  the  patient.  Two 
sharply    differentiated    mental    conditions    could    be    noted : 

*  Pierre  Janet,  L'automatisme  psychologique,  Paris,  1889,  pp.  436- 
440. 

t  Freud,  Sammlung  kleiner  Schrifton  I,  p.  18,  1900. 

t  Breuer  &  Freud,  Studien  iiber  Hysteria.  Leipzig  &  Vienna,  Deu- 
ticke,  189.5,  2d  ed.,  1909. 


BREUER  AND  FREUD  5 

One,  almost  Jiormal,  which  was  distinguished  only  by  sadness 
and  another,  abnormal  condition  of  extreme  excitement  which 
was  often  accompanied  by  hallucinations.  The  power  of 
speech  disappeared  and  for  two  weeks  the  patient  was  dumb. 
One  day  when  she  was  sitting  on  her  father's  bed,  she  saw  a 
snake  which  would  bite  her.  In  the  attempt  to  ward  off  the 
reptile,  she  noticed  that  the  fingers  of  her  hand  changed  into 
snakes  with  death's  heads.  From  fear,  she  attempted  to  pray 
but  could  recall  only  an  English  child's  prayer.  From  that 
hour,  without  noticing  it,  she  spoke  only  English  and  no 
longer  understood  her  mother  tongue.  In  unconsciousness, 
she  murmured  some  words.  When  one  of  these  words  was 
kept  before  her,  she  phantasied  an  episode  from  which  she 
received  a  certain  ease  of  mind.  A  year  after  the  death  of 
her  father,  the  two  conditions  changed  so  that  the  patient 
lived  as  a  normal  person  in  the  present  but  repeated  from  day 
to  day,  in  the  abnormal  state,  the  events  of  the  preceding 
year,  as  the  mother  could  substantiate  from  a  diary  she 
kept. 

Though  this  clinical  history  already  affords  enough  of 
striking  nature,  another  particularly  important  circumstance 
was  added.  When  Breuer  had  dictated  to  the  hysterical 
patient  in  hypnosis  what  she  had  whispered  in  her  unconscious 
state  (absence),  she  gave  an  account  of  the  whole  phantasy 
from  which  those  words  came.  It  showed  that  the  scattered 
words  were  like  the  flag  appearing  above  a  wall,  behind  which 
was  marching  a  body  of  troops  bearing  it.  If  the  events  which 
had  caused  the  symptom  could  be  successfully  drawn  out,  then 
the  cessation  of  the  pathological  phenomenon  followed  the 
oral  description.  For  example,  the  fear  of  water,  the  girl 
traced  back  to  the  impression  that  a  dirty  little  dog  had  drunk 
from  a  glass  without  her  being  able  to  raise  any  objection. 
After  this  memory,  the  aversion  to  the  drinking  of  water  dis- 
appeared. The  squint  and  exaggeration  of  visual  objects  went 
back  to  the  circumstance  that  the  girl  with  tears  in  her  eyes, 
had  brought  the  clock  close  to  her  face  in  order  to  tell  the  time. 
When  the  whole  story  of  suffering  had  been  traced  back  to  its 


6  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

causes,  her  health  had  also  completely  and  permanently  re- 
turned. 

From  these  and  similar  phenomena,  Breuer  and  Freud,  who 
urged  his  colleague  to  publish  the  material  which  he  had  been 
gathering  for  more  than  a  decade,  drew  the  following  con- 
clusions: Very  many  of  the  hysterical  symptoms  are  occa- 
sioned by  an  idea  which  occurs  to  the  patient  with  strong 
affect  at  a  time  of  sleepiness  (166).  In  case  the  latter  is  not 
conducted  along  normal  mental  association  paths  and,  as  you 
might  say,  distributed,  it  jumps  to  abnormal  physical  and 
mental  paths  and  produces  the  hysterical  phenomenon.  Thus, 
the  h3^sterical  individual  suffers,  as  we  may  say,  in  great 
part,  from  reminiscences.  The  cure  is  eft'ected  by  bringing 
that  reminiscence  accompanied  by  its  suitable  excitement  into 
consciousness  and  then  allowing  it  to  fade  away  normally. 
To  put  it  differently,  the  pent-up  affect  is  brought  into  con- 
sciousness and  carried  out  in  speech  or  removed  by  medical 
suggestion;  it  ''is  abreacted."  Since  Breuer's  intelligent 
patient  gave  the  name  of  "chimney-sweeping"  ("Kamin- 
fegen")  to  the  talking  treatment,  which  had  been  tried  on  her, 
her  fortunate  discoverer  called  the  method  the  "cathartic 
method"  (from  KaOaipuv  to  purify).  Its  differentiation  from 
that  of  Janet's  lies  in  the  fact  that  a  bit  of  the  patient's  past, 
which  is  lost  to  his  memory,  namely  the  occasion  of  the  disease, 
is  rendered  conscious,  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  intentional 
bringing  at  the  same  time  of  a  suggested  idea  standing  in  con- 
tradiction to  the  pathological  idea,  is  given  up.  AVe  again 
call  attention  to  the  fact  that  hypnosis  and  abreaction,  the 
speaking  out  of  a  forgotten  but  affectful  traumatic  happening 
which  has  hurt  the  mind,  now  brought  back  to  consciousness, 
constitute  the  essential  features  of  the  cathartic  method. 

Breuer  and  Freud  presented  the  views  thus  gained  in  a 
short  preliminary  publication  *  and  again  in  the  book, 
''Studies  in  Hysteria"   ("Studien  liber  Ilysterie"  t)   which 

*  Breuer  &  Freud,  tJber  den  psychischen  ^Mechanismus  hysterisclier 
Pliiinomcnc.     XiMirolofr.  Zentralhlatt,   1803,  Xos.   1   &  2. 

t  lA-ijizi*;  and  Vienna,  Deuticke,  2d  ed.,  1909.  (The  citations  refer 
to  tlie  latter  edition.) 


BREUER  AND  FREUD  7 

appeared  in  1895.  This  important  work  contains  in  Freud's 
contributions  the  fundamental  ideas  which  led  to  the  psycho- 
analytic method.  We  will  mention  the  most  important: 
Many  hysterical  symptoms,  for  example  visions,  express  sym- 
bolically ideas  which  may  be  found  below  the  threshold  of 
consciousness  (51,  157ff.).  This  idea  was  once  conscious  but 
on  account  of  its  painful  character,  was  repressed  (99,  145, 
235) ;  some  of  its  parts,  however,  still  break  through  into 
ordinary  consciousness  (57).  All  hysteria  rests  on  such  re- 
pression (250) .  The  content  of  the  repressed  idea  is  of  sexual 
nature  (224)  and  various  analogous  causes  must  be  present 
to  produce  the  symptom  (63,  229).  Hypnosis*  can  be  dis- 
pensed with  (92f.)  but  the  resistance  which  the  patient  pre- 
sents against  the  repressed  ideas  being  brought  into  con- 
sciousness must  be  overcome  by  strong  pressure  (234f.).  Al- 
ready, Freud  ventures  on  the  interpretation  of  dreams,  with- 
out, however,  recognizing  the  importance  of  these  in  the  treat- 
ment of  hysterical  troubles  (57).  Impressions  of  earliest 
childhood  are  already  given  attention  (115).  Also  that  phe- 
nomenon to  which  Freud  later,  when  he  had  lost  faith  in  the 
omnipotence  of  abreaction,  ascribed  the  determining  influence 
in  the  healing  process,  the  socalled  "transference,"  is  in  good 
part  outlined.  Of  this,  Freud  knew  that  the  patient  trans- 
ferred upon  the  physician  some  of  the  painful  ideas  emerging 
from  the  unconscious  during  the  analysis  (266f.),  thus,  for 
example,  the  wish  cherished  for  a  kiss  from  another  man  would 
be  changed  to  a  similar  wish  toward  the  physician.  Mit- 
tenzwey  is  greatly  in  error  when  he  believes  that  Freud's 
progress  beyond  Breuer's  ideas  at  this  epoch  consists  merely 
in  the  extension  of  the  method  to  all  the  neuroses,  in  the 
introduction  of  the  term  "defence"  ("Abwehr")  and  the 
exclusively  sexual  causation  of  the  neuroses,  f 

One    peculiarity   of    the    Freudian   method   may   now   be 

*  Authors  like  Forel  and  Frank  (Die  Psychanalyse  (1909),  Munich, 
Reinhardt)  who  speak  well  of  psychoanalysis  but  cling  to  hypnosis,  are 
adherents  of  the  "cathartic"  but  not  of  the  psychoanalytic  conception. 

t  K.  Mittenzwey,  Versuch  zu  einer  Darstellung  und  Kritik  der  Freud- 
schen  Neurosenlehre.     Zeitschrift  fiir  Pathopsychologie  I  (1912),  p.  413. 


8  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

pointed  out :  Freud  allows  his  patient  to  tell  without  criticism 
everything  which  comes  into  his  head  while  in  the  physician's 
presence.  AVhere  he  observes  gaps  or  striking  discrepancies, 
he  directs  the  apperception  directly  to  these  points  and  has  the 
patient  give  associations  to  them.  The  associations  thus  col- 
lected, he  submits  to  a  method  of  interpretation  which  he  has 
developed  from  many  years  of  experience ;  the  independent 
substantiation  of  this  method,  no  regular  analyst  can  or  will 
avoid.  The  essential  features  of  Freud's  psychoanalj^sis  are, 
in  addition  to  the  abandonment  of  h3^pnosis,  an  association 
and  interpretation  method.  In  these  sentences,  w^e  have  given 
the  characteristics  of  the  psychoanalytic  method. 

It  is  now  high  time  to  give  the  reader  an  answer  to  a  ques- 
tion which  must  have  gradually  aroused  his  impatience.  How 
does  all  this  concern  the  educator?  Professionally,  he  has 
nothing  to  do  with  hysterical  individuals.  I  cannot  better 
answer  the  justifiable  interpolation  than  by  continuing  with 
my  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  development  of  psycho- 
analysis. 

Freud  recognized  ever  more  clearly  that  the  processes  which 
produced  nervous  disturbances  are  also  of  highest  influence 
on  the  mental  life  of  normal  individuals  and  can  be  equally 
well  studied  in  them.  Without  being  unfaithful  to  the  med- 
ical interest,  the  Vienna  neurologist  developed  a  new  kind  of 
psychology  which  penetrated  to  the  unconscious  causes  of 
mental  performances.  He  once  defined  psychoanah'sis  as 
''the  investigation  of  the  unconscious  part  of  the  individual 
mental  life."*  For  a  long  time  astute  judges  of  human 
nature  had  asserted  that  many  of  the  highest  performances  of 
the  mind  were  created,  not  in  the  laboratory  of  conscious 
thinking,  feeling  and  willing,  but  in  the  subterranean  cham- 
bers which  had  often  been  denominated  as  the  unconscious. 
Schiller  describes  this  conception  in  the  familiar  lines: 

"As  in  the  air  the  storm  wind  blows. 
One  knows  not  whence  it  comes  or  goes, 
As  the  spring  gushes  forth   from  hidden  depths, 

*  Freud,  Das  Tabu  und  die  Ambivalcnz,  Imago  I    (1912),  p.  220. 


FREUD'S  PSYCHOLOGY  9 

So  comes  the  poet's  song  from  within 
And  awakes  the  power  of  dim  emotions 
Which  wonderfully  slumber  in  the  heart."  * 

Again  Schiller  says;  ''The  unconscious  united  with  dis- 
cretion makes  the  poetic  artist."  t 

Also,  artistic  inspiration,  religious  experience  (James, 
''Religious  Experience,"  443f.,  461-467),  indeed  even  philo- 
sophical speculation  (Nietzsche)  have  long  ago  been  traced 
back  to  mental  processes  lying  under  the  threshold  of  con- 
sciousness. 

Freud's  investigations  not  only  substantiate  these  surmises 
but  also  afford  the  proof  that  the  whole  conscious  mental  life, 
especially  on  its  affective  side,  is  ruled  and  directed  by  such 
subconscious  ("subliminal"  from  limen,  threshold)  motives. 
Freud  and  his  pupils  are  interested,  first  of  all,  in  the  neuroses 
(popularly,  nervous  diseases)  and  mental  diseases  in  which 
anatomical  anomalies  are  not  demonstrable,  the  socalled  func- 
tional psychoses,  then  further,  in  numerous  affairs  of  nor- 
mal mental  functions  which  had  been  partly  treated  cur- 
sorily as  mj^sterious,  partly  left  unobserved.  In  1900,  ap- 
peared Freud's  "Traumdeutung"  |  ("Interpretation  of 
Dreams "  J ) ,  the  most  comprehensive,  perhaps  also  the  most 
important  work  of  the  author.  He  who  would  judge  it,  must 
certainly  overcome  his  aversion  to  the  mysterious  title  and 
his  resistance  to  a  not  unimportant  mental  product.  Further, 
he  cannot  avoid  the  trouble  of  working  over  a  number  of  his 
own  or  another 's  dreams  according  to  Freud 's  formula.  Oth- 
erwise, it  is  obvious  that  an  acceptable  scientific  judgment 
cannot  be  formed. 

In  1901,  appeared  Freud's  book,  " Psychopathology  of 
Everyday  Life"  ("Zur  Psychopathologie  des  Alltags"|!)  on 
forgetting,  errors  in  speech,  superstition  and  mistakes.     In 

*  Compare  my  article :  Anwendungen  der  Psyclianalyse  in  der 
Padagogik  und  Seelsorge,  Imago  I   (1912),  pp.  55-82. 

t  From  0.  Eank,  Das  Inzestmotiv  in  Dichtung  und  Sage,  p.  1. 

t  Leipzig  and  Vienna,  Deuticke,  2d  ed.,  1909,  3rd  ed.,  1911.  Also 
English  translation  by  Brill  of  New  York. 

il  Berlin,  Karger,  2d  ed.,  1907. 


10  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

this  work,  the  writer  seeks  to  prove  that  the  actions  mentioned 
in  the  subtitle,  as  well  as  many  other  accidental  or  apparently 
meaningless  acts,  frequently  come  from  unconscious  motives 
and  owe  their  origin  to  the  same  mechanism  which  prevails  in 
the  dream,  neurosis  and  functional  psychosis.  In  1905,  fol- 
lowed an  extensive  investigation  of  wit  and  its  relation  to 
the  unconscious.*  In  1907,  Freud  considered  the  foundation 
of  religious  psychology  in  his  article,  "Obsessional  Acts  and 
Religious  Practices*'  ("Zwangshandlungen  und  Religionsii- 
bung"  t).  The  same  year,  pedagogy  received  its  first  atten- 
tion from  a  psychoanalyst  in  the  open  letter  on  the  "Sexual 
Enlightenment  of  Children"  ("Zur  sexuellen  Aufkliirung  der 
Kinder"!).  These  works  were  followed  in  1908  by  the  first 
psychoanalytic  treatment  of  a  literary  work,  entitled,  "The 
Delusion  and  Dreams  in  W.  Jensen's  'Oradiva'  "  ("Der 
Wahn  und  die  Triiume  in  W.  Jensen's  Gradiva"||).  Psy- 
chology of  children  which  had  already  been  taken  as  a  field  for 
analytic  investigation  as  early  as  1905,  in  "Three  Contribu- 
tions to  the  Sexual  Theory"  ("Drei  Abhandlungen  zur  Sex- 
ualtheorie")  received  in  1908  the  first  work  specially  devoted 
to  the  subject  in  the  article  "Concerning  Infantile  Sexual 
Theories"  ("tjber  infantile  Sexualtheorien"  IF).  The  views 
set  forth  there  were  substantiated  in  the  "Analysis  of  the 
Phobia  of  a  Five  Year  Old  Boy"  (''Anah^se  der  Phobic  eines 
fiinfjahrigen  Knaben"§).  Into  the  domain  of  ethics,  Freud 
entered  in  1908  with  the  essay,  "Cultural  Sexual  Morality  and 
^Modern  Nervousness"  ("Die  kulturelle  Sexualmoral  und  die 
moderne  Nervositiit"  **).  The  psychology  of  poetry  and  art 
received  new  elucidation  in  the  article,  "Poet  and  Phantasy" 

*  Leipzig  and  Vienna,  Deuticke. 

t  Kleiner  Scliriften   IF,    122-131.      (Originallj^  in  the  Zeitschrift  fiir 
Religionspsyoliolofrie,  I,  Part  1.) 
{Same,  pp.   151-158. 

II  mio. 

TPp.  150-174. 

§  .Talirl)ncli     fiir     psyclioanalytisclie     und     psychopatliologische     For- 
schun^^en,   I    (1910),  pp.    l-lOf). 

**  Ivleine  Scliriften,  IP,  pp.  175-190. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  PSYCHOANALYSIS  11 

C'Der  Dichter  uud  das  Phantasieren"  (1908)  *  and  in  the 
monograph  "A  Childhood  Reminiscence  of  Leonardo  da 
Vinci"  ("Eine  Kindheitserinnerung  des  Leonardo  da  Yinci") 
(1910). t  Finally,  in  1910,  Freud  published  glimpses  into 
philology  in  his  short  article,  "Concerning  the  Contradictory 
^Meanings  of  Primitive  Words"   ("tJber  den  Gegensinn  der 

Urworte")4 

For  a  long  time  no  attention  was  paid  to  psychoanalysis. 
Its  results  called  forth  some  respectful  bows  but  mostly  only 
a  shaking  of  heads.  The  first  persons  to  second  Freud  in 
scientific  publications  were  C.  G.  Jung,l|  psychiatrist  in 
Zurich  and  his  chief,  E.  Bleuler,^i  Professor  of  Psychiatry  and 
Director  of  the  Cantonal  Institute  for  the  Insane.  After  these 
two  investigators,  in  spite  of  the  fiercest  hostility,  recognized 
the  correctness  of  Freud 's  assertions,  the  movement  which  had 
previously  been  received  in  dead  silence,  soon  became  discussed 
in  the  farthest  circles.  In  the  spring  of  1908,  the  adherents 
of  the  new  psychology  assembled  in  Salzburg  and  arranged  for 
the  publication  of  a  periodical  journal  as  an  organ  for  the 
propagation  of  their  ideas.  As  a  result  there  has  appeared 
annually  in  two  impressive  half -volumes,  the  '^Jahrbuch  flir 
psychoanalytische  und  psychopathologische  Forschungen" 
(Yol.  I,  Part  I,  1909)  (Yearbook  for  Psy choanal 3' tic  and  Fsy- 
chopathological  Investigations).  The  series  of  pamphlets  de- 
voted to  applied  psychology    ("Schriften  zur  angewandten 

*  Kleine  Schriften,  II,  pp.  107-206. 

t  Schriften  zur  angewandten  Seelenkunde,  Part  7. 

t  Jalirbuch,  Vol.  II,  pp.  170-184. 

jl  Jung,  Ein  Fall  von  hysteriscliem  Stupor  bei  einer  Untersuclmngs- 
gefangenen.  Journal  f.  Psyehologie  und  Neurologie,  Vol.  I,  1002,  Die 
psycliologische  Bedeutung  des  Assoziationsexperimentes,  xVreliiv  f.  Krim- 
inalantlirop.  Vol.  22;  p.  145.  Exper.  Beobaelitungen  iiber  d.  Erinner- 
ungsvermogen.  Zbl.  f.  Nervenheilk.  und  Psycliiatrie,  Year  XXVTII 
(1005),  etc.  See  the  index  to  the  literature  in  the  Jahrbuch,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  363-375. 

li  Freudsche  Mechanismen  in  der  Symptom atologie  von  Psychosen. 
Psychiatr.-neurolog.  Wochenschrift  1006.  Affektivitnt,  Suggestibilitiit, 
Paranoia.  Halle,  1000,  contributions  in  the  "Diagnostischen  Assozia- 
tionsstudien"  edited  bv  Junsr. 


12  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

Seelenkunde "  * )  edited  by  Freud  is  constantly  growing. 
The  Congress  sitting  at  Niirmberg  in  1909  concluded  the  for- 
mation of  the  International  Psychoanalytic  Association  which 
soon  had  sections  in  Vienna,  Zurich,  Berlin,  New  York  and 
^Munich.  For  the  U.  S.  and  Canada,  a  general  American  as- 
sociation Avas  founded.  Since  the  ''Yearbook"  could  not 
contain  the  wealth  of  scientific  material,  f  two  new  periodicals 
appeared:  In  1910,  the  " Zentralblatt  fiir  Psychoanalyse,"  a 
medical  monthly  for  mental  problems  $  and  in  1912,  the  bi- 
monthly Imago,  a  journal  for  the  application  of  psychoanalysis 
to  the  mental  sciences.] i  Since  January,  1913,  there  has  ap- 
peared the  "Internationale  Zeitschrift  fiir  arztliche  Psycho- 
analyse" (published  by  Heller,  Vienna,  18  marks  a  year; 
edited  by  Ferenczi  and  Rank). 

In  November,  1913,  appeared  the  first  number  of  an  Ameri- 
can quarterly  devoted  to  psychoanalj^sis.  This  is  the  Psycho- 
analytic  Review,  edited  by  Drs.  William  A.  White  of  Washing- 
ton and  Smith  Ely  Jelliffe  of  New  York  City. 

In  the  first  number  of  Imago,  we  find  a  list  of  all  articles 
in  the  field  of  mental  sciences  published  up  to  the  end  of  1911. 
It  names  almost  two  hundred  articles  from  the  fields  of 
psychology,  sexual-,  dream-,  everyday-,  and  child-psychology, 
pedagogy  and  theory  of  morals,  characterolog}^,  biography, 

*Up  to  the  end  of  1912,  thirteen  parts:  1.  Freud,  "Gradiva."  2. 
Riklin,  Wunseherfiillung  iind  Syrabolik  in  Miirchen.  3.  Juno:,  Der  Tn- 
lialt  der  Psycliose.  4.  Abraham,  Traum  und  Mythus.  5.  Rank,  Dor 
Mythus  von  der  Geburt  des  Helden.  6.  Sadger,  Aus  d.  Liebesleben 
Xikohius  Lenaus.  7.  Freud,  Fine  Kindheitserinnerung  des  Leonardo 
da  Vinci.  8.  Pfister,  Die  Frtimmigkeit  des  Grafen  L.  v.  Zinzendorf, 
!).  Graf,  Ricli.  Wagner  im  "Fliogondon  TTolliindcr."  10.  Jones,  Das 
Problem  des  Hamlet  un  der  Odipus-Komplex.  11.  Abraham,  Giovanni 
Segantini.  12.  Storfer,  Zur  Sonderstellung  des  Vatermordes.  1.5. 
Rank,  Die  Lohengrinsage.  14.  Jones,  Der  Alptraum  in  s.  Beziehung 
zu  gew.  Formen  d.  mittelalterl.  Aberglaubens. 

t  V^ol.  T,  594  pp.,  Vol.  II,  747  pp.,  Vol.  Ill,  857  pp.,  Vol.  IV,  Part  1, 
606   pp. 

X  Published  by  Rergmann,  Wiesbaden.  18  Marks  per  year.  Edited 
by  W.   Stekel.     Suspended  publication   in    1914. 

II  Hugo  Heller,  Vienna.  15  Marks  per  year.  Edited  by  H.  Sachs 
and  0.   Rank. 


SPREAD  OF  PSYCHOANALYSIS  13 

esthetics,  mythology,  religious-,  speech-,  social-  and  criminal- 
psychology. 

Among  pedagogic  journals,  two  have  entered  the  service  of 
psychoanalysis:  at  the  beginning  of  1912,  the  Berner  Semi- 
narbldtter,  journal  for  school  reform,  organ  of  the  Swiss 
Pedagogic  Association,  issued  under  the  auspices  of  Dr. 
Ernst  Schneider,  Director  of  the  Higher  Seminary  in  Bern, 
in  conjunction  with  Prof.  Dr.  Oskar  Messmer  in  Rorschach, 
Dr.  Otto  von  Greyerz  in  Glarisegg  and  the  author  of  this  book. 
Some  months  later,  the  "  ]\Ionatshef te  fiir  Padagogik  und 
Schulreform"  (Vienna)  was  won  by  Alfred  Adler  for 
psychoanalysis. 

The  first  pedagogues  who  publicly  recognized  the  im- 
portance of  psychoanalysis  were  Prof.  Adolf  Ltithi,  who  in 
1910  in  the  yearbook  of  the  "  Unterrichtswesens  in  der  Sweiz^' 
(page  197)  reviewed  in  most  friendly  manner  my  first  peda- 
gogic articles  of  psychoanalytic  nature,  further  Prof.  Dr.  E. 
Meumann,*  Prof.  Dr.  0.  Messmer,  t  and  Dr.  P.  Haberlin,t 
Privatdozent  of  Philosophy  in  Basel,  who  had  previously, 
while  Seminary  Director  of  the  Thurganischen  Lehrerbil- 
dungsanstalt  in  Kreuzlingen,  extensively  practiced  the  new 
pedagogic  method.  Pastors  who  have  entered  the  literary 
field  in  favor  of  psychoanalysis  are  A.  Waldburger  ||  in 
Ragaz,  the  Calvinist,  Th.  Johner,1[  a  conservative  theologian, 
and  Adolf  Keller  in  Zurich. 

Two  or  three  years  ago  the  reproach  was  hurled  at  the 
psychoanalyst  that  aside  from  Freud  and  Bleuler,  whose  im- 
portance no  one  disputed,  no  university  teacher  had  joined  the 

*  Meumann,  Pildag.  Jahresber.  1910,  63rd  Year,  Leipzig,  p.  134. 

t  Messmer,  Die  Psychoanalyse  u.  i.  pad.  Bedeutung.  Berner  Semin- 
arblatter,  V,  Part  9   (1911).  ' 

t  Hilberlin,  Sexualgespenster.  Sexualprobleme,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  96- 
106    (1912). 

II  Waldburger,  Psychanalyt.  Seelsorge  u.  Moralpiidagogik.  (Prot. 
Alonatshefte,  XIII  (1909),  pp.  110-114.  A  defence  of  my  article  which 
appeared  in  the  same  journal.) 

H  Johner,  Die  Psychoanalyse  im  bernischen  Kant.  Pfarrverein.  Der 
Kirchenfreund   (Basel),  XlIv   (1910)   No.  24. 


14,  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

new  school.  To-day  this  criticism,  which  many  consider  unen- 
durable, lias  already  disappeared.  A  constantly  increasing 
number  of  high  school  teachers,  in  spite  of  a  threatened  boy- 
cott and  much  derision,  have  joined  the  outlawed  psychoan- 
alj'tic  association.  The  following  are  analysts:  the  psychi- 
atrist of  Bern  University,  Prof,  von  Speyr,  the  neurologist  of 
Harvard  University,  Prof,  James  J.  Putnam,  a  man  of  wide 
experience  and  great  philosophical  attainments,  further,  the 
professors  of  psychiatry,  Ernest  Jones  (Toronto),  Adolf  ]\leyer 
(Baltimore),  August  Hoch  (New  York),  Davidson  (Toronto), 
Jelliffe  (New  York),  White  (Washington).  Among  the  ps}'- 
chologists  is  the  first  college  president  to  acknowledge  Freud, 
the  influential  founder  of  experimental  religious  psychology,  G. 
Stanley  Hall;  among  investigators  of  speech,  P.  C.  Prescott, 
Professor  of  the  History  of  English  Literature  in  New  York 
and  II.  Sperber  in  Upsala ;  among  the  representatives  of  in- 
ternal medicine,  Prof.  R.  IMorichau-Beauchant  in  Poitiers.  A 
large  number  of  other  investigators,  especially  in  Germany  and 
Switzerland,  accept  psychoanalysis  in  its  important  points. 
This  rapid  spread  of  a  theory  which  had  such  a  tremendous 
resistance  against  it,  within  a  very  few  years,  is  nothing  short  of 
marvelous. 

In  spite  of  the  large  number  of  publications,  it  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  the  literary  w^ork  has  not  kept  pace  with  the 
practical  and  theoretical  advance.  Very  many  results  espe- 
cially important  for  pedagogy  are  scarcely  touched  upon  in  psy- 
choanalytic journals.  Of  the  analytic  educational  work  with 
pupils,  who,  without  being  really  ill,  still  because  of  inner  in- 
hibitions, make  themselves  and  their  families  unhappy,  there  is 
almost  no  mention  anywhere.  How  the  hitherto  unobserved 
impressions  of  childhood  control  the  whole  later  development 
of  the  normal  individual,  even  to  the  peculiarity  of  his  style, 
his  choice  of  a  vocation  and  of  a  wife,  as  well  as  the  most  insig- 
nificant subordinate  affairs,  finds  too  little  discussion.  The 
enormous  loss  of  love  for  fellowmen  and  of  power  for  work 
which  many  individuals  suffer,  mostly  without  knowing  it,  as 
a  result  of  unfavorable  educational  influences,  have  not,  up  to 


APPLICATION  OF  PSYCHOANALYSIS  15 

the  present  time,  been  given  their  proper  weight  in  the  litera- 
ture. I  gave  a  few  examples  of  this  in  my  article,  "Applica- 
tions of  Psychoanalysis  in  Pedagogy  and  Pastoral  Care" 
("Anwendungen  der  Psychoanalyse  in  der  Piidagogik  und 
Seclsorge"  *).  I  described  cases  of  nntruthfulness,  klepto- 
mania, tormenting  of  animals,  destructive  rage,  aversion  to 
work,  dislike  of  certain  foods,  meaningless  gestures,  portentous 
corporal  punishment,  withholding  of  sexual  enlightenment, 
eccentric  gaits,  pathological  hate,  hysterical  physical  defects  as 
a  pedagogic  problem,  creation  of  hobgoblins  out  of  the  uncon- 
scious in  choice  of  a  husband  or  wife,  unhappy  marriages  as 
result  of  psychic  traumata  of  youth,  religious  abnormalities 
from  similar  causes.  From  these  experiences  chosen  at  ran- 
dom, I  drew  the  conclusion;  Countless  numbers  of  persons  who 
bring  heart-breaking  grief  to  their  parents  and  other  people 
and  cannot  help  bringing  it  because  they  are  under  neurotic 
obsessions,  can  by  the  aid  of  analysis  be  changed  into  agreeable 
useful  individuals. t  The  proof  for  the  correctness  of  this  as- 
sertion which  ought  to  have  emphasized  the  difficulty  of  the 
analytic  work  more  strongly,  I  hope  to  afford  in  the  present 
book. 

Corresponding  to  the  external  modifications  in  the  psycho- 
analytic movement,  there  are  internal  changes  which  are  nuich 
too  little  noticed  by  those  not  intimately  associated  with  it. 
Many  a  justifiable  reproach  from  the  side  of  its  opponents  ap- 
plies to  the  analysis  as  once  practiced  but  not  to  the  present 
method.  It  is  obvious  that  so  new  and  penetrating  a  method  of 
investigation  was  and  is  subject  to  errors.  That  which  once 
appeared  to  the  astonished  gaze  of  the  discoverer  as  evident 
certainty,  discloses  here  and  there  to  closer  observation  oihov 
causal  connections.  Where  from  a  number  of  coincident  re- 
sults, a  comprehensive  prhiciple  was  derived,  later,  contradic- 
tory observations,  setting  the  earlier  formula  against  a  new  one, 
may  compel  a  hypothesis  embracing  both  the  old  and  the  newest 
knowledge.     This  transition  is  common  to  all  sciences  and  it 

*  Imago,  I,  pp.  56-82  (1912). 
tP.  77. 


16  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

would  not  be  just  to  forge  weapons  against  the  method  from, 
this  adaptation  to  the  progress  of  experience.  I  am  not  at  all 
averse  to  voicing  the  opinion  that  psychoanalytic  science  has 
very  much  to  learn  and  will  learn  from  the  observation  of 
earnest  pedagogues  and  any  critical  co-worker  who  discloses 
errors  and  ambiguities  will  be  most  welcome. 

I  shall  name  some  of  the  most  important  transformations 
which  the  analytic  theory  and  technique  has  undergone  since 
its  inception :     The  theory  that  the  repression  of  an  affectf ul 
idea  into  the  unconscious  was  always  accomplished  by  a  pain- 
ful, shocking  experience.     The  shock  or  trauma  theory  was 
given  up  in  favor  of  the  conception  that  everything  is  of  im- 
portance, the  repression  of  ideas  or  phantasies.    Where  once 
the  emphasis  lay  on  the  sexual  trauma,  the  unconscious  attach- 
ment to  the  parents  was  found  to  be  the  chief  cause  of  the 
neuroses  and  of  other  conditions  of  dependence  on  the  uncon- 
scious which  influenced  life.     The  sexual  theory,  previously  the 
greatest  stumbling  block,  underwent  a  radical  change,  since, 
not  only  the  assertion  of  the  causation  of  every  neurosis  in  a 
sexual  irritation  in  the  ordinary  sense,  was  abandoned,  but  also, 
the  term  sexuality  received  a  great  amplification,  so  that  the 
poorly  oriented  reader  scarcely  understands  any  longer  what 
the  analyst  means  by  the  word  and  strikes  wrong  interpreta- 
tions.    AYhere  at  that  time,  one  considered  the  ''abreaction," 
the  affectf  ul  ''speaking  out,"  as  the  healing  agent,  to-day  we 
know  that   the   transference   of   repressed   wishes   upon   the 
analyst,  forms,  at  least  in  severe  cases,  an  indispensable  con- 
dition of  the  cure.     Where  in  the  first  period,  the  analytic 
attack  was  directed  at  the  SA'mptom,  now,  it  is,  in  a  certain 
sense,  neglected,  in  order  to  turn  all  attention  to  the  resistance 
against  analyst  and  analysis.     If  at  first,  one  aims  only  at  the 
elimination  of  the  internal  conflict,  he  presently  strives  for 
independent  adaptation  to  reality  which  comes  from  the  over- 
coming  of   the    internal    two-sidedness,    the   turning   of   the 
patient's  mental  forces  toward  reality  in  accordance  with  the 
limitations  of  his  personal  peculiarities,  and  thus  rounds  out 
the  analytic  educational  work  by  assisting  conservatively  self- 


CRITICISM  OF  PSYCHOANALYSIS  IT 

education.  Freud's  fight  against  the  scientifically  and  ethi- 
cally reprehensible  ' '  wild  psychoanalysis, ' '  *  which  expects 
cure  from  promiscuous  sexual  gratification  without  regard  to 
scruples  or  love,  has  also  raised  the  moral  standing  of  the 
analysis. 

By  all  these  modifications,  which  are  due  in  only  the  slight- 
est measure  to  hostile  criticism,  almost  entirely  to  psycho- 
analytic experience,  the  agreement  with  traditional  views  and 
especially  with  prevailing  pedagogic  ideas,  has  been  essentially 
increased.  In  1907,  Isserlin  explained:  ''If  we  emphasize 
the  disposition  somewhat  more  and  deprive  the  trauma  t  of  the 
decisive  role  which  it  would  play  in  the  causation  of  hysteria, 
the  contending  opinions  would  have  come  closely  together."  t 
We  have  seen  that  the  original  historical  and  psychological 
chasm  which  seemed  unabridgable  in  the  beginning,  became 
narrowed  also  at  other  points.  He  who  travels  in  an  unknown 
land,  at  first  notices  the  new  and  strange ;  only  gradually  does 
the  ' '  partout  comme  chez  nous ' '  come  into  its  rights. 

It  would  now  be  my  task  to  describe  how  the  critics  met  and 
accompanied  the  forward  march  of  psychoanalysis.  To  my 
satisfaction,  Bleuler  has  performed  this  necessary  task  in  his 
discerning  article,  "Die  Psychoanalyse  Freuds."  The  battle 
raged  in  the  most  diverse  affective  states;  from  perfect  neu- 
trality to  furious  insult,  to  boycott,  indeed  in  one  instance, 
even  to  denunciation  before  the  public,  in  which  scarcely  an 
insinuation  was  omitted.  As  a  strange  cultural  curiosity,  one 
example  may  be  mentioned  without  anger  or  intent  to  complain 
or  apply  for  the  martyr's  crown.  I  can  mention  it  with  all 
the  greater  equanimity  since  it  only  reacted  in  favor  of  psycho- 
analysis. On  the  15th  of  December,  1911,  a  neurologist  in 
Zurich,  specialist  in  electrotherapy,  gave  a  public  lecture  in 

*  Freud  has  from  the  beginning  fought  against  this  with  all  pos- 
sible vigor,  for  example,  Kl.  Schriften  I,  p.  109  (1895),  pp.  137  ff.,  199, 
230;   II,  pp.   14,  34. 

t  M.  Isserlin  tiber  Jungs  "Psychologie  der  Dementia  praecox  und 
die  Anwendung  Freudscher  Forschungsmaximen  in  der  Psychopatl)ol- 
ogie."  Zentralblatt  fiir  Nervenheilkunde  u.  Psychiatric.     1907,  p.  341. 

t  Jahrbueh  II,  pp.  623-730. 


18  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

which  he  pictured  the  objectioiiableness  and  perversity  of 
psychoanalysis.  To  this  end,  he  drew  a  caricature  which 
estranged  even  non-analysts.  In  order  to  show  what  kind  of 
a  business  an  analysis  was,  he  picked  out  of  Freud's  ''Frag- 
ment of  Hysteria- Analysis, "  that  is,  from  an  article  intended 
only  for  the  medical  profession,  one  of  the  most  delicate  por- 
tions and  described  to  the  public,  among  which  were  many 
young  boys  and  girls,  how  Freud  discussed  coitus.  One 
can  imagine  the  indignation  of  some,  the  joy  of  others.  AVhat 
would  that  speaker  have  said  if  one  had  pictured  orally  to  a 
totally  unprepared  audience  containing  many  very  young  in- 
dividuals, in  a  voice  of  moral  indignation,  the  things  which  that 
physician  did  to  women  and  girls  in  his  gynecological  practice? 
And  in  this,  it  would  not  be  a  question  of  perversions  which 
would  be  exposed  to  the  phantasy  of  persons  half -developed 
sexually.  The  refusal  of  a  public  debate  by  the  analytic  side 
led  to  a  violent  contest  in  the  daily  press,  the  end  result  of 
which  was  favorable  to  psychoanalysis  in  that  the  denounced 
literature  was  really  devoured  and  the  rush  to  the  analysts  in- 
creased wherever  possible. 

Since  Bleuler's  article  in  defence  of  psychoanalysis,  there 
has  appeared  only  one  important  criticism  of  psychoanalysis : 
that  of  Arthur  Kronfeld.*  In  its  depth  of  thought,  neutral 
reserve  and  repeatedly,  indeed,  in  its  honest  admiration  of 
Freud,  it  places  all  other  discussions  in  the  shade.  Still,  jit  is 
one  wnth  its  pretlecessors  in  that  it  does  not  trouble  itself  in  the 
least  about  the  fundamental  facts  underlying  psychoanalysis 
and  avoids  a  priori  empiric  tests.  The  hypotheses  and  theories 
which  Freud  and  his  pupils  have' been  compelled  to  believe  from 
the  phenomena  observed,  it  puts  under  the  head  of  "general 
psychological  foundations"  and  thus  stands  the  whole  system 
on  its  head.  How  would  a  representation  of  the  Wundtian 
psychology  work,  which  began,  say  with  the  principle  of  the 

*  tjber  die  psycliolooigclipn  Theorion  Freiuls  und  verwandte  An- 
8chauunf;en,"  Archiv  fiir  die  gesamte  Psycholo<;ie,  Vol.  XXII  (1011), 
pp.  130-24.S.  While  this  hook  was  in  press,  an  excellent,  anticriticism 
against  Kronfeld  hy  Gaston  Kosenstein  appeared  (Jahrhuch  IV  (1013), 
pp.   741-798). 


CRITICS  19 

aim  of  heterogony,  and  from  there  went  backwards  but  was 
promptly  silent  every  time  Wundt  disclosed  a  psychological 
fact  determined  empirically  or  proposed  an  experiment? 
The  effect  would  plainly  be  similar  to  that  in  a  cinematographic 
production  if  a  dramatic  scene  was  produced  backwards  by 
reversing  the  film.  All  causal  connections  would  be  destroyed, 
the  whole  would  be  incomprehensible.  So  proceeds  Kronfeld 
with  the  analysis.  Also  the  most  everyday  observations,  for 
example,  the  transposition  of  an  affect  from  one  idea  to  an- 
other, he  denies  without  going  to  the  trouble  of  a  test.  Like  all 
the  hostile  critics,  Kronfeld  seems  to  suffer  from  a  strange 
fear  of  the  facts,  an  ''ontophobia."  Hence  his  industry,  his 
learning  and  his  sharpsightedness  serve  no  purpose,  the  dis- 
cussion is  hopeless  though  one  would  gladly  meet  so  chivalrous 
an  opponent. 

In  the  following  statements,  I  shall  give  careful  attention  to 
the  voices  of  the  critics.  Especially  shall  I  consider  the  expres- 
sions of  Alt,  Aschaffenburg,  O.  Binswanger,  Dubois,  O.  Fischer, 
F.  W.  Foerster,  Friedlander,  Heilbronner,  Hoche,  Janet, 
Isserlin,  Klien,  Kraepelin,  Kronfeld,  Lehmann,  jMendel,  j\1o11, 
Naeke,  Oppenheim,  Morton  Prince,  Siemerling,  Skliar,  Vogt, 
Wiegandt,  Ziehen.  I  hope  that  no  important  argument  of 
these  opponents  will  escape  me.  The  mockers  among  the  op- 
ponents, I  would  ask  to  recall  that  old  sajdng  which  Goethe 
gives  in  his  ''Faust":  "We  are  accustomed  to  men  jeering 
at  that  which  they  do  not  understand." 

The  many  other  authors  who,  after  proving  for  themselves, 
have  broken  lances  in  favor  of  the  violently  opposed  theory, 
should  be  considered  with  the  same  precision. 

If  the  objection  be  raised  that  pedagogy  ought  to  wait  in 
silence  until  the  physicians  have  solved  the  problem  of  psycho- 
analysis, two  facts  should  be  remembered :  psychoanalysis  is 
also  important  for  normal  individuals ;  these  are  of  no  concern 
to  the  physician  but  of  much  concern  to  the  educator.  Fur- 
ther, this  professional  quarrel  of  the  physicians  may  not  be 
settled  for  decades ;  meanwhile,  however,  the  great  new  educa- 
tional problems  are  waiting  and  can  no  longer  be  put  off.     The 


20  THE  PSYCHOANALYTIC  METHOD 

scientifically  trained  pedagogue  is  just  as  good  an  expert  in  re- 
gard to  the  child 's  mind  and  the  influencing  of  this  function  as 
the  physician  is  for  the  sick  child.  Therefore,  the  teacher  has 
a  right  to  his  own  judgment  and  the  stimulating  encourage- 
ment of  Freud  as  well  as  all  other  competent  analysts  can  only 
strengthen  him  in  his  undertaking. 

From  our  historical  sketch,  we  may  now  derive  the  definition : 
Psychoanalysis  is  a  scientifically  grounded  method  devoted  to 
neurotic  and  mentally  deranged  persons,  as  w^ell  as  to  normal 
individuals,  w^hich  seeks  by  the  collection  and  interpretation  of 
associations,  with  the  avoidance  of  suggestion  and  hypnosis, 
to  investigate  and  influence  the  instinctive  forces  and  content 
of  mental  life  lying  below  the  threshold  of  consciousness. 

Whether  or  not  the  claims  expressed  in  this  definition  are 
justified,  we  have  now  to  determine. 


FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  THE 
NEUROSES 

CHAPTER  I 

GENERAL   THEORY   OF   THE   NEUROSES 

Freud's  Field  of  Work.  General  Pathology.  Clas- 
sification of  the  Neuroses.  Course  of  Development  of 
Freud's  Theory  of  the  Neuroses.  General  Etiology. 
Role  of  Sexuality  and  of  Heredity.  The  Psychosexual 
Constitution.  The  Cultural  Sexual  Morality.  Refer- 
ence to  the  Therapy. 

The  field  of  Freud's  work  comprises  the 
neuroses  in  the  narrower  sense  as  well  as  certain 
closely  related  psychoses,  such  as  paranoia,  acute 
hallucinatory  confusion,  etc.  Formerly,  numer- 
ous  clinical  pictures  were  included  in  the  term 
neuroses  from  which  many  have  been  separated 
by  the  progress  of  the  study  of  the  blood-forming 
organs,  for  example,  Basedow's  disease  and 
tetany,  w^hile  on  the  other  hand,  others  have  been 
classified  as  infections,  for  example,  chorea. 
Thus,  the  term  neuroses  has  now  been  limited  to 
neurasthenia,   hysteria   and   the   compulsion   or 


2        FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  THE  NEUROSES 

obsessional  neurosis  (Zwangsneurose).  Accord- 
ing to  Freud's  opinion,  the  neuroses  deserve  the 
name  sexual-neuroses,  since  for  these  clinical  pic- 
tures the  chief  etiological  factors  may  be  proven 
to  lie  in  the  psychosexual  sphere.  In  the  field 
of  neurasthenia,  the  Freudian  investigation  has 
yielded  a  classification  of  great  theoretical  im- 
portance and  practical  significance.  In  a  classi- 
cal study,^  Freud  has  separated  from  the  vague 
term  neurasthenia  the  "anxiety-neurosis"  and 
further  sharply  marked  off  a  symptom-complex 
as  real  or  true  neurasthenia.  He  calls  these  tv^o 
clinical  pictures  true  neuroses  because  their  cause 
lies  in  the  present  abnormal  condition  of  the 
sexual  function  of  the  individual  and  in  oppo- 
sition to  these  he  calls  hysteria  and  the  obsessional 
neurosis,  psychoneuroses.^  In  these  latter,  the 
real  causative  factors  in  contrast  to  those  of  the 
true  neuroses  belong  not  to  the  actual  sexual  life 
but  to  a  long  past  period  of  life  in  early  child- 
hood. Further,  these  infantile  experiences  and 
impressions  ^vhich  only  later  become  actively 
pathogenic  turn  out  to  belong  without  exception 
to  the  erotic  life  which  is  generally  though  er- 
roneously believed  to  be  completely  negligible  in 

i"uber  die  Bercclitigung,  von  der  Neurasthenic  einen  be- 
stimmten  Symptomenkoniplex  als  'Angstneurose'  abzutrennen,'* 
Lit.  No.  4. 

2  In  the  following  presentation,  neurasthenia  and  hysteria  will 
be  used  as  the  best  known  examples  of  their  kind. 


GENERAL  THEORY  OF  NEUROSIS     3 

the  child.  Thus  in  every  case  of  neurosis,  a  sex- 
ual etiology  was  revealed;  in  neurasthenia,  the 
agencies  were  of  a  physical  nature,  in  the 
psychoneuroses,  of  an  infantile  nature.  A  second 
essential  difference  between  these  two  groups  of 
nervous  maladies  is  to  be  sought  in  the  fact  that  in 
the  true  neuroses  the  disturbances  (symptoms) 
may  find  expression  in  physical  or  mental  mani- 
festations which  seem  to  be  of  a  toxic  nature ;  they 
are  similar  to  the  phenomena  accompanying  an 
excess  or  deficiency  of  certain  nerve  poisons. 
These  neuroses,  formerly  grouped  mostly  under 
nem^asthenia,  can  be  produced  by  certain  inju- 
rious influences  of  the  sexual  life  without  any 
necessary  hereditary  predisposition;  indeed  the 
form  of  the  malady  corresponds  to  the  kind  of 
injurious  influence  so  that  frequently  one  can 
infer  the  special  sexual  etiology  merely  from  the 
clinical  picture  presented.  With  the  psychoneu- 
roses on  the  other  hand,  the  influence  of  heredity 
is  more  important,  the  original  cause  less  evident. 
A  special  method  of  investigation  which  will  be 
described  later  as  psycho-analysis  has,  however, 
allowed  the  fact  to  be  recognized  that  the  symp- 
toms of  the  disorders  (hysteria,  obsessional 
neurosis,  etc.)  are  psychogenic,  depending  on  the 
activity  of  unconscious  (repressed)  idea-com- 
plexes. This  same  method  has  also  recognized 
these  complexes  and  shown  them  to  be  universally 


4        FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  THE  NEUROSES 

of  a  sexual  erotic  content;  they  arise  from  the 
sexual  needs  of  individuals  ungratified  in  the 
broadest  sense  of  the  word  and  afford  them  a 
kind  of  substitute  gratification. 

Tlie  value  of  the  theoretical  distinction  between 
the  toxic  (true)  neuroses  and  the  psychogenic 
neuroses  is  not  diminished  by  the  fact  that  in 
most  nervous  persons  disturbances  due  to  both 
sources  may  be  observed.  Such  mixed  cases  are 
very  frequent;  thus,  the  obsessional  neurosis  is 
often  associated  with  neurasthenia,  anxiety-neu- 
rosis with  hysteria  (compare  later  ^'anxiety- 
hysteria") .  In  all  these  cases,  a  mixed  and  com- 
bined etiology  in  the  sense  explained  later  is 
found  without  exception. 

While  it  was  just  now  stated  that  those  two 
great  groups  of  diseases  were  the  original  field  of 
Freud's  work,  it  must  be  emphasized  that  for 
about  fifteen  years  Freud  has  not  had  opportunity 
to  contiime  his  investigation  of  the  true  neuroses, 
hence  this  part  of  the  theory  has  not  experienced 
a  further  expansion.  The  important  progress 
which  the  comprehension  of  the  nature  of  the 
psychoneurotic  troubles  has  made  in  the  mean- 
time will  jjlace  their  relation  to  the  true  neuroses 
in  a  somewhat  different  light  and  it  will  probably 
necessitate  a  revision  in  this  field  in  the  near  fu- 
ture. The  more  limited  field  of  Freud's  work 
is  constituted  by  the  psychoneurotic  forms,  espe- 


GENERAL  THEORY  OF  NEUROSIS      5 

cially  hysteria  and  the  obsessional  neurosis,  and 
it  is  exceedingly  instructive  to  follow  the  steps 
in  the  development  of  the  nucleus  of  the  Freud- 
ian doctrine  if  one  wishes  to  appreciate  the  full 
extent  and  value  of  his  theory  of  the  etiological 
significance  of  the  psychosexual  agencies  for  the 
neuroses. 

As  a  pupil  of  Charcot  in  Paris  in  1885-1886, 
Freud  received  important  incentives  to  investi- 
gation.^ Prominent  among  these  was  the  step 
by  which  Charcot  surpasssed  the  level  of  his  orig- 
inal conception  of  hysteria  and  assured  himself 
the  fame  of  being  the  first  to  explain  this  enig- 
matical malady,  a  fact  of  great  significance  for  the 
further  investigations  in  this  field.  While  Char- 
cot was  engaged  in  the  study  of  the  hysterical 
paralyses  which  follow  dreams  the  idea  came  to 
him  to  reproduce  these  paralyses  artificially  and 
to  this  end  he  made  use  of  hysterical  patients 
whom  he  brought  into  the  somnambulistic  state 
by  hypnosis.  He  succeeded  in  proving  that  these 
paralyses  may  be  the  result  of  ideas  which  have 

3  Compare  Freud's  obituary  notice  on  Charcot,  Lit.  No.  23. 
While  lecturer  in  Vienna  University,  Freud  translated  into  Ger- 
man the  most  important  works  of  his  French  master,  J.  M.  Char- 
cot, "Poliklinische  Vortrage,"  School-year  1887-88.  "Neue 
Vorlesungen  iiber  die  Krankheiten  des  Nervensystems,  indesondere 
liber  Hysteric."  H.  Bernheim,  "Die  Suggestion  und  ihre  Heil- 
wirkung."  "Neue  Studien  iiber  Hypnotismus  Suggestion,  und 
Psychotherapie."  Collected  by  the  press  of  F.  Deuticke,  Vienna 
and  Leipzic. 


6        FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  THE  NEUROSES 

gained  the  mastery  of  the  patient's  brain  in  mo- 
ments of  special  disposition.  Thus  was  the  mech- 
anism of  an  hysterical  symptom  elucidated  for 
the  first  time  and  this  incomparably  beautiful 
piece  of  clinical  investigation  enabled  Charcot's 
pupil,  P.  Janet,  to  pave  the  way  for  a  deeper 
penetration  into  the  peculiar  psychic  processes 
of  hysteria.  This  example  was  followed  by 
Breuer  and  Freud  who  succeeded  in  sketching  a 
psychological  theory  of  hysteria  in  their  jointly 
published  ''Studies  in  Hysteria"  ( 1895) .  In  the 
years  1880-1882,  Breuer  had  observed  a  note- 
worthy case  of  hysteria  which,  in  so-called 
hypnoidal  states,  revealed  to  the  attending  phy- 
sician those  psychic-traumatic  experiences  which 
had  brought  about  the  individual  hysterical 
symptom.  Thereby  appeared  the  entirely  new 
and  surprising  fact  that  the  individual  hysterical 
symptoms  disappear  when  the  memory  of  the 
event  which  caused  them  is  successfully  brought 
to  clear  consciousness,  at  the  same  time  arousing 
its  accompanying  effect  and  having  the  patient 
describe  the  event  in  all  possible  detail  and  give 
the  effect  expression  in  words.  Following  this 
classical  observation  of  Breuer's,  as  you  might  say 
the  first  psycho-analysis,  Freud  applied  the  ca- 
thartic method  to  a  series  of  cases  with  success. 
Breuer  and  Freud  arrived  at  conclusions  which 
permitted  of  bridging  the  gap  between  the  trau- 


GENERAL  THEORY  OF  NEUROSIS      7 

matic  hysteria  of  Charcot  and  the  general  non- 
traumatic variety.  Their  conception  was  that 
the  hysterical  symptoms  are  the  continued  activ- 
ities of  mental  traumas,  the  accompanying  effects 
of  which  have  heen  separated  by  special  conditions 
from  the  conscious  mental  processes  and  are  ac- 
cordingly in  a  position  to  attain  an  abnormal 
path  to  bodily  innervation  (conversion).  The 
terms  "pent-up  effect,"  "conversion,''  "to  abre- 
act"  sum  up  the  characteristics  of  this  view.  It 
showed  these  painful  experiences  "repressed  into 
the  unconscious,"  the  effects  of  the  original  idea 
not  abreacted  as  "pent-up";  only  by  the  complete 
expression  of  this  idea  in  words  could  the  patho- 
genic activity  of  the  old  memory  be  broken.  If 
the  requisite  conditions  for  conversion  are  not  at 
hand  in  a  person,  then  the  idea  separated  from  its 
effect  may  remain  separated  from  all  associations 
in  consciousness;  the  emotion  thus  set  free  may 
become  attached  to  other  not  unbearable  ideas 
and  these  from  this  false  association  become  obses- 
sions in  the  broader  sense  of  the  term  (substitu- 
tion). Hysteria  and  obsessional  neurosis  are 
thus  both  to  be  considered  as  cases  of  unsuccessful 
defense. 

In  the  further  investigation  of  the  psycho- 
neuroses  to  which  Freud  now  devoted  himself  ex- 
clusively, he  found  upon  a  more  detailed  study  of 
the  causative  psychic  traumas  from  which  the 


8        FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  THE  NEUROSES 

hysterical  symptoms  were  supposed  to  be  derived 
that  these  original  scenes  which  had  appeared  to 
possess  etiological  importance  must  sometimes  be 
absolved  from  being  the  determining  factor  and 
the  traumatic  force  which  occasioned  the  disease. 
The  "traumatic  experience"  thus  lost  its  supreme 
importance  and  Freud  found  through  continued 
analytic  work  in  the  associated  memories  of  the 
patient  that  no  symptom  of  an  hysteric  could 
arise  solely  from  an  actual  experience,  but  that  in 
every  case  a  memory  awakened  by  association  of 
an  earlier  traumatic  experience  usually  belonging 
to  the  time  of  puberty,  which  had  not  at  that  time 
caused  trouble,  cooperated  in  the  causation  of  the 
symptom.  A  furtlier  result  of  this  later  analytic 
work  was  the  discovery  that  from  whatever  case 
or  whatever  symptom  one  wished  to  start,  he 
finally  came  without  exception  to  the  field  of 
sexual  experience.  Herewith  was  revealed  for 
the  first  time  an  etiological  condition  of  an  hyster- 
ical symptom.  ^ 

But  experiences  recovered  with  so  much 
trouble,  extracted  from  the  mass  of  old  memories, 
seemingly  the  final  traumatic  events,  although 
they  had  the  two  characteristics  of  sexuality  and 
puberty  in  common,  proved  themselves  to  be  very 
disparate  and  of  different  value  so  that  further 
investigation  was  demanded.  It  was  finally 
revealed  that  behind  the  sexual  erotic  events  of 


GENERAL  THEORY  OF  NEUROSIS     9 

puberty  are  still  more  far-reaching  experiences  of 
infantile  life,  which  are  also  of  sexual  content  but 
of  far  more  uniform  kind  than  the  previously 
revealed  scenes  occurring  at  puberty.  These  in- 
fantile experiences  evince  their  effect  in  only  the 
slightest  degree  at  the  time  when  they  happen; 
far  more  important  is  the  later  effect,  which  finds 
expression  only  in  later  periods  of  maturity. 
Since  these  infantile  experiences  of  sexual  con- 
tent can  produce  a  psychic  effect  only  by  the  aid 
of  the  memory,  here  is  revealed  the  insight  that 
hysterical  symptoms  never  arise  without  the  co- 
operation of  the  memory.  Hysterical  patients 
suffer  from  "reminiscences."  At  the  bottom  of 
every  case  of  hysteria  are  found  one  or  more 
events  of  premature  sexual  experience  which  be- 
long to  earliest  youth;  these  may  be  reproduced 
in  memory  by  persevering  analytic  work  even  after 
decades  have  intervened.  At  that  time,  these 
traumatic  experiences  were  erroneously  limited 
to  neurotics;  it  soon  became  evident,  however, 
that  such  experiences  w^ere  often  consciously  re- 
membered by  individuals  who  remained  perfectly 
healthy  afterwards,  hence  the  specific  etiological 
agent  in  the  causation  of  the  neurotic  symptoms 
could  not  lie  in  this  circumstance. 

By  a  penetrating  investigation  of  the  sexual 
life  of  the  first  years  of  childhood  this  note- 
worthy and  very  instructive  error  was  exposed 


10      FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  THE  NEUROSES 

and  by  a  deepened  insight  into  the  constitutional 
factors,  overcome.  Freud  had  previously  re- 
vealed in  the  "Drei  Abhandlungen  zur  Sexual- 
theorie"  ^  the  whole  polymorj^hous  fullness  of  the 
normal  infantile  sexual  life  with  its  germs  of 
disease  and  abnormality.  Thereby  infantilism 
of  sexuality  took  the  place  of  the  originally  over- 
rated infantile  sexual  traumas.  And  as  the  sex- 
ual experiences  of  childhood  reported  by  patients 
turned  out  repeatedly  to  be  the  products  of  later- 
formed  phantasies  from  the  eroticism  of  puberty 
concerning  earlier  childhood,  the  importance  of 
the  preponderating  erotic  phantasy-life  for  the 
breaking  out  of  a  neurosis  came  to  the  fore- 
ground. When  Freud  had  finally  succeeded  in 
analyzing  a  child-neurosis  in  state  of  formation 
there  was  revealed  the  decisive  influence  of  the 
family  constellation  on  the  content  and  intensity 
of  the  child's  affections  as  well  as  for  the  later 
possibilities  of  development.  The  nature  and 
degree  of  the  psychic  fixation  of  the  growing  child 
on  the  parents  and  brothers  and  sisters,  as  well  as 
on  the  related  problems  of  birth  and  procreation, 
disclose  themselves  more  and  more  clearly  as  the 
essential  nuclear  complex  of  the  neuroses.  To 
the  formation  of  a  neurosis  from  this  nuclear 
complex,  which  is  also  present  in  normal  indi- 

4  Translation  by  Brill  in  Monograph  Series  of  Journal  of  Ner- 
vous and  Mental  Disease. 


GENERAL  THEORY  OF  NEUROSIS     11 

viduals,  belong  in  exquisite  fashion,  besides  quan- 
titative transgressions,  a  hereditary  predisposition 
which  Freud  has  described  in  a  narrower  sense  as 
the  psychosexual  constitution.  In  this  decisive 
importance  of  the  instinctive  hfe  and  its  psycho- 
sexually  conditioned  disharmonies  there  has  been 
attained  a  provisional  ultimate  source  for  the 
later  formation  of  the  neurosis. 

When  Freud  appeared  on  the  scene,  heredity 
constituted  the  most  important  presupposition 
of  the  neurosis.  He  could  thus  with  justice  ap- 
ply himself  at  first  to  the  exciting  agencies ;  in  this 
connection,  he  has  not  overlooked  but  repeatedly 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  besides  the  a^en- 
cies  in  the  psychosexual  field,  the  etiology  of  the 
neuroses  may  be  conditioned  both  by  inheritance 
and  by  a  special  constitution  and  that  the  neu- 
roses, like  all  other  diseases,  have  complex  causes. 
Though  more  recently  the  theory  of  an  hereditary 
j)redisposition  has  undergone  a  certain  abridg- 
ment, still  there  is  no  doubt  that  there  are  neuro- 
pathic families  in  which  an  hereditary  taint  can  be 
clearly  traced.^     Freud  thus  assumes  that  the  he- 

c  Freud  has  emphatically  pointed  out  more  than  once  that  in 
more  than  half  of  his  cases  of  severe  hysteria,  obsessional  neu- 
rosis, etc.,  treated  by  psychotherapy,  syphilis  in  the  father  before 
marriage  was  to  be  proven.  Not  that  the  later  neurotic  children 
bore  physical  signs  of  hereditary  lues  but  that  in  these  cases  the 
abnormal  psycho-sexual  constitution  could  be  observed  as  the  last 
offshoot  of  luetic  inheritance. 


12      FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  THE  NEUROSES 

redity  finds  expression  in  a  peculiar  psychosexual 
constitution  of  the  individual  which  asserts  itself 
in  an  abnormally  strong  and  many-sided  instinc- 
tive life  and  a  consequent  sexual  precocity.  This 
renders  difficult  the  later  desirable  subjection  of 
the  sexual  instinct  to  the  higher  mental  powers, 
its  adaptation  to  the  prevailing  cultural  demands 
and  strengthens  the  obsessional  character  which 
the  psychic  representation  of  this  instinct  lays 
claim  to.  This  early  and  excessive  development 
of  the  sexual  instinct  brought  about  by  constitu- 
tional conditions  can  only  be  counteracted  by  an 
abnormal  amount  of  efferent  repressive  effort 
(sexual  repression)  ;  the  psychological  analysis 
shows  further  how  to  solve  the  contradictory 
mysteriousness  of  hysteria  by  the  perception  of 
two  opposing  forces,  a  too  severe  sexual  absti- 
nence and  an  excessive  sexual  need.  The  occa- 
sion for  the  onset  of  the  disease  in  the  hysterically 
disposed  person  arises  when,  on  account  of  the 
progressive  internal  maturing  process  or  of  ex-» 
ternal  events,  the  real  sexual  demands  earnestly 
assert  themselves.  Between  the  compulsion  of 
the  instinct  and  the  opposing  force  of  sexual 
denial,  the  way  is  prepared  for  the  malady,  which 
does  not  solve  the  conflict  but  seeks  to  escape  it 
by  changing  the  libidinous  strivings  into  symp- 
toms. The  manifold  varieties  and  the  different 
possibilities  of  development  of  such  an  abnormal 


GENERAL  THEORY  OF  NEUROSIS     13 

psychosexual  constitution  Freud  has  explained 
in  detail  in  his  "Drei  Ahhandlungen  zur  Sexual- 
theorie."  Added  to  the  hereditary  and  constitu- 
tional prerequisite  conditions  of  the  neurosis, 
there  are  many  premature  sexual  experiences  and 
activities  which  act  as  agencies  favoring  its  out- 
break ;  the  importance  of  these  could  have  been  so 
long  overlooked  only  because  so  much  more  at- 
tention has  been  directed  to  that  long  past  period 
of  the  lifetimes  of  the  ancestors,  namely  heredity, 
than  to  that  long  past  period  in  the  history  of  the 
individual,  namely,  early  childliood.  Freud  has 
done  a  great  service  in  calling  attention  to  the 
early  seduction  of  children  by  other  children  or 
adults  and  the  abnormal  reaction  to  these  experi- 
ences as  a  result  of  an  especial  susceptibility  to 
these  impressions.  "The  greatest  effect  will  be 
produced  by  the  neurosis  when  constitution  and 
experience  combine  toward  the  same  end/'  An 
outspoken  constitution  may  be  able  to  escape  by 
the  impressions  of  life,  a  sufficient  shock  in  life 
may  bring  about  the  neurosis  in  an  average  con- 
stitution." ^     Besides  the  admitted  share  of  true 

6  The  admission  that  there  may  be  such  a  combination  of  dif- 
ferent causes  instead  of  the  assertion  of  one  set  of  causes  is  a 
peculiarity  of  the  Freudian  theory  of  the  neuroses  which  never 
fails  to  emphasize  the  variety  of  causes  and  in  no  way  conducts 
itself  in  a  one-sided  dogmatic  fashion  as  it  is  reproached  with 
doing. 

7  Lit.  No.  20. 


14      FREUD'S  THEORY  OF  THE  NEUROSES 

heredity,  Freud  has  revealed  a  pseudo-heredity  in 
the  influence  of  an  environment  of  nervous  peo- 
ple, namely  the  nervous  parents,  and  has  shown 
that  there  is  a  nearer  way  than  heredity  for  nerv- 
ous parents  to  transmit  their  disturbances  to  their 
children.  "It  is  one  of  the  surest  signs  of  a  later 
neurosis  when  a  child  shows  itself  insatiable  in 
its  demands  for  caresses  from  the  parents  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  just  the  neuropathic  parents 
who  tend  to  exhibit  unbounded  affection  and  by 
their  fondling  predispose  the  disposition  of  the 
child  to  a  neurotic  outbreak  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment."  ^  Thus  upon  more  careful  analysis, 
what  appears  to  be  hereditary  transmission  re- 
solves itself  into  the  effect  of  powerful  infantile 
influences.  From  a  higher  point  of  view,  it  is 
observed  that  our  present-day  cultural  standard 
of  sexual  morality,  which  imposes  so  many  inju- 
ries and  restrictions  on  a  natural  life,  is  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  causation  of  nervous  dis- 
eases, especially  the  true  neuroses.  Cultural, 
indeed  still  more  frequently,  material  agencies 
often  place  insurmountable  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  a  normal  sexual  life,  which  is  necessary  as  a 
protection  against  neurasthenic  and  anxiety- 
neurotic  troubles,  for  in  this  connection  it  is  found 
that  nothing  else  is  necessary  for  a  cure  except 
the  correction  of  the  inadequate  sexual  gratifica- 
tion.    JNIuch  more  difficult  is  the  treatment  of  the 


GENERAL  THEORY  OF  NEUROSIS     15 

psychoneuroses ;  for  the  healing  of  these  a  very 
comphcated  ps^^chological  technique  has  been 
perfected,  which  will  be  explained  later;  in  cer- 
tain particulars  this  is  still  undergoing  deepen- 
ing and  refinement. 


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